Liam Walsh has spoken of his determination to keep repaying Luton Town supporters for sticking by him through a difficult first half of the season.
The 27-year-old has started the last ten matches, the first time he has done so for any club since he was at Coventry in the 2019/20 campaign, and is revelling in an engine room partnership with Jordan Clark.
After picking up two red cards in his first 11 appearances for the club, our midfielder says he knew he had to prove himself to the Kenilworth Road faithful in order to turn his season around.
Speaking to LTFC+ ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Blackburn, the opposition when he picked up the second of those reds at Ewood Park in mid-December, Walsh said: “I think going through one season of football, it’s not always going to be great, you’re not going to be happy all the way through the season.
“For me, I put myself in that situation so it was down to me to get myself out of it.
“I think being at a club like Luton, after those things happen and I got back playing, seeing the support from the fans, I knew straightaway that I owed them a big rest of the season, and I owed them my best performances that I could possibly give them.
“Not even just on a matchday, I’m doing it in training every day, but I know what I owe to the fans, and I know how much it means to them.
“Since Matt has come in and I’ve got my run of games, all I’ve tried to do is repay the fans back and I want to keep doing that until the end of the season.”
The former Everton and Swansea man also emphasised the role the fans can play in determining how the Hatters’ season in the Championship plays out over the next five matches, starting with a red-hot atmosphere at the Kenny tomorrow.
Asked how much the fans are helping in the current five-match unbeaten run, he said: “A lot. I think some fans don’t think they have as much effect on a team as they really do, but when we’re playing on the pitch you can hear them in the background, even when the ball’s going out for a corner, you can hear the fans getting up for it, and it gives you a bit of a buzz in the game and makes you want to win the game and get the points for them.
“They are travelling to Stoke on a Tuesday night, and some of them have probably got better things to do and families at home, but we just want to put on performances for them and hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Looking ahead to Rovers’ visit to Bedfordshire, and the aim of continuing the recent run of good form that saw manager Matt Bloomfield and Clark nominated for the Championship monthly awards for March, he added: “I reckon momentum in football is a massive thing.
“You feel it, even in the build-up. You go and get an away point or an away win and you come back to training and everyone is buzzing and thriving off it.
“From now we’ve got five games, so we want to get as maximum points as we can and go game by game, but we are going into Saturday confident and wanting the three points.”
